Auburn wins, 80-75.
Auburn now is 20-9 overall, 9-7 in league play.
AUBURN BY THE NUMBERS
2FG: 11-of-21 (52%)
3FG: 13-of-30 (43%)
FT: 19-of-23 (83%)
MSU grabbed more rebounds, 41-21.
Auburn is 6-5 this season when being out-rebounded.
MSU BY THE NUMBERS
2FG: 14-of-25 (56%)
3FG: 10-of-30 (33%)
FT: 17-of-25 (68%)
MY AUBURN PLAYER OF THE GAME
G Bryce Brown: 24 points (7-of-10 shooting), 3 assists, 2 steals
FROM THE MSU SIDE
"Give Auburn credit — Auburn, defensively, played incredibly hard today. The 18 turnovers were killers. A fourth of their points were off our turnovers." — MSU coach Ben Howland
FROM THE AUBURN SIDE
• Auburn now is 3-7 against Quadrant I teams this season.
• ""We've had a hard time beating the best teams on our schedule this season," Bruce Pearl said. "We needed to beat a good team."
• Auburn now has won at least 20 games for the first time since the 1999-2000 season. "I want that to be a normal things for us now," shooting guard Bryce Brown said Saturday.
• Pearl on the back-to-back, 20-win seasons: "We've had good players, had a great home-court advantage, great fans. It hasn't happened often. I'm proud of that."
• Auburn's win Saturday ended MSU's five-game win streak.
• Saturday's game followed a familiar script insofar as Auburn played well, created a big advantage, lost sight of the habits/behaviors that created said advantage, nearly conceded said advantage, rallied to win during the final few minutes. Why does this this team handle success so poorly? My view is that defensive intensity doesn't come naturally for this group — defense is what happens immediately before the next possession — and a big advantage means defensive achievement no longer is required. Then the opponent closes the gap. Then Auburn has a difficult time re-gaining its passion for defensive achievement. The irony is that I believe this year's team is less prone to an embarrassing NCAA flameout due to its better (overall) defensive ability. This team can play some defense. It also can shut things down way too early.
• Loyal readers of this recap know I've been very critical of Jared Harper for various offenses. He won't be discussed much after scoring just 10 points on 2-of-10 shooting Saturday, but the Tigers' point guard deserves a ton of credit for re-vamping his game after the Kentucky debacle. He finished with five assists and zero turnovers against Georgia on Wednesday. Harper added nine assists and zero turnovers Saturday. He's clearly an elite ball-handler when has prioritizes that facet of his game. When games begin carrying major significance in Nashville and beyond, Harper must shift into that mode — and stay in that mode until the final game ends. The Tigers' offense flops when Harper fails to value possessions. It's that simple.
• Pearl: "Jared Harper played great. He quarterbacked us, captained us. Didn't make shots, but played really well."
• Also of note: Harper drew three offensive fouls Saturday. He's become so good at anticipating the opposing point guard's moves off screens — and Harper is really good at getting to that space first and creating an obstruction. Elite guys like Kentucky's Ashton Hagans and Murray State's Ja Morant don't fall for Harper's (proverbial) traps, but "regular" point guards, the guys who can't think more than two steps ahead like MSU's Lamar Peters, fall victim to Harper's trickery.
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• It was another up-and-down game for backup PG J'Von McCormick. He was better defensively during the first half, but his block on Peters during what looked like a unstoppable fast break was a real high point. His teammates weren't bothering to play much defense, but McCormick wasn't conceding much at all. Of note: A careless pass from Danjel Purifoy created that perilous situation.
• Auburn remains the nation's top-ranked defense in terms of turnovers created: 25.2 percent of all opponent possessions end with a turnover. MSU finished with 18 turnovers Saturday — nine of those were credited as steals — and the Tigers finished +11 in points off turnovers. This team's ability to deflect passes and parlay those deflections into transition opportunities is its true identity. That's something Auburn does better than every other team in America.
• A lot of good things happened in this game from the Tigers' perspective. They shot well from two. They shot well from three. They got to the line fairly often (by their standards) and hit their free throws. They defended well for long stretches, particularly during the first half. And they won. Let's not forget that fact.
• With that said, Auburn also was overpowered badly on the glass. Mississippi State was +20 in terms of rebounding, which is an astounding statistic on its own merit. How does that happen? Chuma Okeke did his part with seven rebounds, yet forwards Anfernee McLemore (three rebounds in 24 minutes) and Horace Spencer (two rebounds in 16 minutes) definitely didn't help much in that manner. We all know the loss of Austin Wiley affects the Tigers' numbers in terms of rim protection and defensive rebounding, but his absence cannot be an excuse to concede anything inside. McLemore doesn't play with a physical edge anymore, Purifoy never played with an edge and, well, I don't know what to say about Spencer because effort isn't his problem. He just doesn't anticipate caroms well. Auburn has been out-rebounded in three consecutive games and this kind of problem will wreck this team if not rectified somehow. They don't have to win every rebounding battle, but getting doubled up is unacceptable.
• Auburn resumes play Tuesday night at Alabama. That game is scheduled to tip at 8 p.m. CST and will be televised by ESPNU.
